There is a long list of ways the Republican Party is trying to attack women’s rights in this election, the Democratic women’s caucus heard Tuesday.

“They want to send us so far back that we’ll be in the kitchen,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily’s List, an organization working to put Democratic, pro-choice women in office. Her zinger met with whoops and cheers.

The Republicans have launched an “all-out war on women,” California Senator Barbara Boxer said earlier in the day. From the “legitimate rape” comments made by Missouri representative Todd Akin last month, to the cuts to Planned Parenthood, the warfare, to them, is abundantly clear.

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But at least one faction of the Democratic Party believes the talk of war is not only overblown, but misguided. They also believe the party’s staunch pro-choice position is alienating voters who would otherwise vote for Barack Obama.

They are the pro-life Democrats.

“I don’t buy the line into the war on women,” said Janet Robert, the executive director of Democrats for Life of America. “I think there were some extremely misguided extremist statements made by certain Republicans that frankly do not represent the pro-life movement…[such as Mr.] Akin’s remark that rape’s legitimate. I think a lot of that was totally just ginned up by the Democrats, by some of the pro-choicers in an attempt to try to make pro-lifers look more extremist than they are.”

Ms. Robert and people who think like her align themselves with the Democratic Party because they view it as promoting equality. They like that Mr. Obama has pledged to preserve the social security net that helps support a person from birth to death — that’s at risk with the Medicaid the Romney-Ryan ticket has promoted, they say.

Pro-life Democrats like Obamacare. They like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, better known as “equal work for equal pay” — the first bill Mr. Obama signed into law as president. They support the Democrats’ Wall Street reform act.

And they say the Republican Party has successfully aligned itself with the pro-life movement because the Democrats are staunchly pro-choice.

A Gallup poll from 2011 found that 44% of American women consider themselves to be pro-life. About 37% of Democratic women voters are pro-life, along with 40% of independent women voters, according to another Gallup poll from 2008.

“If this war on women [campaign message] was so successful, why are we still struggling in Ohio and in Pennsylvania?” said Ms. Robert, identifying two crucial swing states the Obama campaign has targeted. “So the war on women got Obama a higher percentage in what, New York and California. But what did it get us where we really need the votes?”

If this war on women [campaign message] was so successful, why are we still struggling in Ohio and in Pennsylvania?

The Democrats’ platform, released Tuesday, says, “The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.”

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin called it “extreme,” and pointed out that the platform “explicitly opposes any regulation of abortion and considers public funding of any type of abortion to be a ‘right.’”

Ms. Robert said that within the party and the feminist movement today, a person is not considered feminist if he or she does not support abortion.

“There were many, many pro-life women who voted for Obama and I’ve talked to many of them who are feeling discouraged,” she said. “They’re saying ‘Listen, if I’m going to stay in this party, I have to be true to who I am.’ And that’s where I think the future of the Democratic Party is.”

But at least for now, the future of the party is in the pro-choice camp, its position emphasized by the platform language and the list of convention speakers, which includes Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-choice America who spoke Tuesday night, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and Sandra Fluke, the birth control activist and Georgetown University law student who Rush Limbaugh called a “slut” on his radio show.

Earlier Tuesday, Ms. Fluke told the National Post that the war on women is very real and the threats to women’s health issues (and equal pay for equal work, and the violence against women act) will bring more women out to the polls. And in the meantime, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will be “running as far away as they can” from their record on these issues.

“It’s a record women aren’t comfortable with. It’s out of step with what women want from their elected officials and it’s extreme,” she said. “It’s very conservative and extreme and out of step with the mainstream of America.”

But for some Democrats the party platform has proven alienating.

It’s a lonely life for a pro-life Democrat thanks to the staunch pro-choice stance, said Eva Ritchey, the president of North Carolina Pro-Life Democrats.

“I think politically as far as a pro-life Democrat goes on the part of my party, I’d say the war’s on us,” she said. “I think it’s pretty inaccurate to say we’re a big tent party. I’ve thought about this a lot and we’re really more of a big bus party — and pro-life Democrats are sitting in the back.”